Thread by @AlexJSarama

🤯Chaos Shooting
👉 2 balls, 2v2, 3v2, 4v2 all allow for good time on task.
▪️Offense can shoot threes, pass or drive but no rim finishes.
🏀This is something we are doing most practices. Let’s take a look behind the mess to understand the value of an SSG like this…

Bursts are applied, so offense and defense stay for 60 seconds before a rest & then change. When starting with this we did not add loud music. This led to more connections, making it a little easier for the offense. Also wasn’t as much of a strain on working memory.

🎶 Now we do this with loud music (not shown w/ Twitter copyright). Purposely pick something a little stressful such as heavy metal or arena sounds! Encourage offense AND defense to connect above the noise. Defense rebound and pass to anyone. Find the ROB shot, count the BRADs.

The problem with many shooting drills are that coaches make the decision for players as to what shot they will take and where they will shoot from. Every shot is predetermined. Every shot in the game is the opposite of this, starting with the basic decision of “am I open?”

This SSG provides many affordances. Getting open to break 3 in a row, drive or pass decisions, running a trigger if neutral, coverage solutions etc. The problem with many shooting drills is they are not game-like because there is no passing option.

Basketball games are dynamic and fast-paced, just like this SSG. You can literally observe in the videos affordances (opportunities for action) emerge and disappear as the players interact with their environment.

I love the innovation from coaches using contested shooting drills without a passing option. But I question whether these are task representative? The goal is to shoot open shots, not heavy contests! Many of these drills are over-constrained and thus they lose their benefit.

I understand to develop world class players they need to shoot with a hand in their face and a heavy contest. But the balance has to be sought between contested and allowing the passing option. Shot selection is biggest factor influencing shot %!

This SSG shows how no shot is ever the same. This is therefore a lot more game-like, particularly with passes coming from different locations, speeds, spins etc vs perfect chest passes coming from under the basket as we see in most shooting drills.

This is also a good opportunity to highlight the research related to influence of a defender on the motor performance of the jump shot. This has been demonstrated in studies by Rojas et al., 2000 and Gorman and Maloney, 2016. @adam_gorman_1

Gorman and Maloney (2016) found that the presence of a defender led to faster shot executions, longer jump times, and longer ball flight times. Even at the NBA level, the proximity of a defender influences shooting accuracy. When NBA players have a wide open shot…

(the defender more than 6 ft away), the average shooting accuracy of 3PT shots is 38.1%. For open shots (4–6 ft), 35.4%; for tight shots (2–4 ft) 31.2%, and for very tight shots (0–2 ft), this is 26.4% (NBA Advanced Stats, 2017 data).

This has VERY important implications for how we practice. I know a lot of players like spot shooting (block, constant practice). This doesn’t necessarily mean it is good for them though! @ShakeyWaits shared more on this the other day.

This is a great extract from @Jack_Fleming1’s blog: “Shots in the 2012 Olympics were charted and discovered that around 15% of shots were uncontested. This means that around 85% of the time, players were having to shoot the ball with a defender coming at them…

“making them change their shot. Interestingly, of the 85% of contested shots, just over 50% of these were executed with very high levels of defensive pressure. But how often do we practice these shots?“ medium.com/@flemingjack19…

Even for spot shooting, my players have incorporated simple changes to improve it’s value. They will use different passes, sometimes contest, always change location and mix in triggers. This is one example of how we can add some value and “meet in the middle.”